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The most important thing is that what happened in Siurtė was filmed and the recording was disseminated on social networks. The government immediately commissioned the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to investigate such an incident.
However, Hungary accused the Ukrainian media of artificially inciting the scandal by saying that the published record does not record how members of the Council of Sury first sang the Ukrainian anthem. It is unclear if this was actually the case.
The incident was reported a few weeks after Ukraine accused Hungary of interfering in local elections. And shortly after the Hungarian anthem was played in Siurtė, the SBU organized a search for the headquarters of Hungarian ethnic organizations in Transcarpathia.
The organizations are suspected of “activities aimed at violating the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state.” Budapest reacted immensely: the October incident, when Ukraine barred two Hungarian government officials from entering the country, was immediately recalled.
Did you sing a hymn or two?
Ethnic Hungarians are the largest minority in Transcarpathia, a region that once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Budapest claims that Hungarian rights in Ukraine are being violated.
Tensions escalated in 2017 when Ukraine passed a law restricting the use of non-state languages in public schools. For its part, Budapest has enraged Kiev over the division of the country’s passports for ethnic Hungarians, and Hungary increasingly hints that it is blocking Ukraine’s possible admission to NATO.
And finally, the inaugural meeting of the Surye Council, officially called the United Territorial Community.
Budapest has angered Kiev over the division of the country’s passports for ethnic Hungarians, and Hungary is increasingly hinting that it will block Ukraine’s possible admission to NATO.
It took place on an important day for Ukraine – November 21. This day is commemorated in Ukraine as the Day of Dignity and Freedom, because it was then that protests began in Kiev’s Independence Square in 2013. Following the riots in February next year, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown .
Photo by Scanpix / ITAR-TASS / Viktor Yanukovych
Arpad Pushkar, president of the Surye Council, suggests not marking the incident with the anthem. The video was allegedly leaked by officials from the local electoral commission and does not reflect what actually happened.
“At first we sang the national anthem of Ukraine. And then the council members began to sing our prayer – the Hungarian anthem,” said A. Pushkar, who was also supported by the Hungarian Embassy in Kiev.
The diplomatic mission explained that the Hungarian prayer for the Hungarians had been ongoing for hundreds of years and that it only later became part of the hymn. Furthermore, the embassy stated that Ukrainian law guarantees the possibility for national minorities to use national symbols.
Foreigners engaged in turmoil
However, Iryna Vereshchuk, representing the Servant of the People of the Ukrainian people’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Verkhovna Rada, immediately asked publicly how Budapest would have reacted if something similar had happened in Hungary.
ZUMAPRESS.com/Volodyrymas Zelenskis
“How would Hungarians react if the Ukrainian anthem was heard there during the council meeting? Wouldn’t it be considered disrespectful, a hostile act?” Asked the MP.
Solomy Bobrovska, a member of the anti-corruption party Hola, added that the SBU had acted correctly when carrying out the raids: “Furthermore, I think such actions should have been taken earlier. Hungarian officials openly campaigned in violation of Ukrainian law.”
It is true that Nestor Šufryčius, a pro-Russian spokesman for the opposition Platform for Life party, noted that the SBU raids would only further complicate relations between Ukraine and Hungary; it would be more difficult to find compromises now.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry suspects that Hungarian officials have actively recommended compatriots in Transcarpathia to vote for the local Hungarian party. And that violates the laws of the country.
“The ministry immediately called on the Hungarian side to respect Ukrainian law and not take any action indicating direct interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine,” the statement said in a statement issued in late October.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry suspects that Hungarian officials have actively recommended compatriots in Transcarpathia to vote for the local Hungarian party. And that violates the laws of the country.
A month later, the SBU also raided, and the Hungarian Cultural Association in Transcarpathia immediately announced that a search of its headquarters and the home of President Laszlo Brenzovich had sought evidence of “activities aimed at violently changing borders.” The association called such actions a “witch hunt.”
When the SBU confirmed this information and stressed that the investigation would continue, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had already stated that Budapest was issuing a formal protest against the raids.
“Reuters” / “Scanpix” nuotr./Peteris Szijjarto and Dmytro Kuleba
As threatening, the minister added that a state that wishes to become a member of the transatlantic community cannot “constantly threaten and pressure a minority belonging to NATO.”
Disputes over the Language Law
Both countries have been pushing for a long time, but tensions escalated in 2017 when Ukraine passed new laws that made the Ukrainian language mandatory in public schools.
The language has long been considered a hot topic in Ukraine, albeit in the easternmost regions where many Russian speakers live and where pro-Russian separatists in Moscow sparked a conflict in 2014 and still control large numbers in the Donetsk regions. and Lugansk.
Critics often interpret the Language Law as directed against the Russian language in the educational system. But the law also restricted the rights of ethnic Hungarians.
Photo by Scanpix / ITAR-TASS / Student of a school in Kiev
And Hungarian nationalists, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, are already trying to take advantage of the situation. Orban threatens to prevent Ukraine from joining both the EU and NATO, and his government is generously providing financial support to Hungarian communities in Transcarpathia.
Hungarian Hungarian passports are also distributed to Hungarian Ukrainians, although Kiev prohibits dual citizenship.
In 2018, a social media post was broadcast recording a Hungarian consul making a toast to Hungarian Ukrainians who had just received a national passport and saying, “Don’t tell the Ukrainian authorities.”
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